Does Running a Zeros Erase + Clean Install of SL Fix Glitchy Bugs ?

Hi Guys & Gals...
I'm just asking the questions as I know from previous and past experience a clean install can be a very dangerous this to do.... I have lost data before.... doing this procedure.... but I must say... it nearly always delivers a fix to software problems the normal route of repairing permissions never seems to deliver.
This time I have all my Data on a 8TB Drobo Drive... so I'm confident I won't loose any important data.... but I do know I will have to slowly... piece by piece build back up my entire system.... enter numerous serial numbers and software updates etc... but I think it might be my only resort at this stage.
I have been having issues with Photoshop ever since I updated to Snow Leopard. My main issue was that I couldn't have numerous windows open... as in I would find it difficult to select the window I would be working in... sometimes what Photoshop would be showing me wasn't the file I was working on. I would close it down... and then realise I closed down the main file I was working on... and it wouldn't even ask me if I wanted to save the file and I would loose all the work I had just done. That would be my major issue... also.... opening numerous high resolution TIFF files would normally end up in Photoshop just quitting. I have 8GB of RAM which always served me well under Leopard and Tiger.
Now Photoshop won't even open two documents without quitting and it's very erratic behavior... sometime it will open them... others it won't... so I really want to sort this before my workload starts to intensify.... which is about 1-2 weeks away.
The new issue is with Quark.... it just keeps quitting on certain files.... but when I move these self same files over onto my MacBook Pro... they open fine... OK I could use my MacBook for some edits... but it's a 15" screen as opposed to my normal 3-" working screen and it's really not the way to be working...
So all in all I find myself here... wanting to do a complete erase and install. When I did upgarde from Leopard to Snow Leopard I usually would have done an erase and clean install... but I was busy and couldn't afford the down time and anxious to experience Snow Leopard so I went ahead and just did the software upgrade.
My question is.... will I really be only wasting my time... as I know it will take days... if not weeks to get fully everything back to the way it was.... but if I can eradicate these issues... while I have this window of opportunity.... maybe it will be worth it..
Any comments... please.... would be most welcome... as I'm planning the Zeros Erase + Install for tomorrow.
Yours sincerely,
Anthony
Irish MacUser and MacAddict
Message was edited by: Anthony MacCarthy

MacOS X 10.6.2 still has quite a few crashing bugs. So does every other OS on the planet. It certainly has far fewer of those than any Adobe product.
I was talking about the specific Mac OS bugs that have plagued me personally since 10.5.0 under Photoshop CS3 and CS4 — these are known, documented crashers within the OSX operating system that Apple hasn't fixed in 10.6.2.
There are also new OSX bugs that were introduced in 10.6.0 that also crash Photoshop CS4 (according to my troubleshooting and high-level Photoshop engineers who've looked at my numerous crash reports on a freshly 'zeroed' 10.6.2 hard drive with only Photoshop CS4 added on).
Yes, RAM was ruled out, and Apple replaced my logic board, processors, matching video cards during the process. They even replaced a 30" monitor that failed.
I even duplicated the OP's specific problem (working with several files open, dragging layers between windows) on a remote Adobe machine using special debug software for the engineers. I did this in less than eight minutes and told them exactly where the crash occurred.
writing zeros to any hard drive is a waste of time.
I am not too sure what Apple's Disk Utility> Security Option (zero) does these days — if it remaps bad blocks or if it will fail the 'zero' process when it hits them as it 'tests' each and every block on the drive — so I won't comment further other to say I "zero" every Mac I get (new or used), every new hard drive I install, and every suspect hard drive.
So for now, I will stick to my opinion that the 'zero' option is far from useless here to make a troubleshooting point to the engineers or support techs.
I have no doubt 10.6.2 is very unstable for certain users - mainly those users who want to run unsupported software.
If you are saying Photoshop CS4 is "unsupported" software, then I agree with your point — then the simple point here becomes: Photoshop does not run reliably on the Mac OSX platform in a professional environment.
+++++
I have to say I've done all the troubleshooting (with both level two Apple support and Adobe engineers) to know what I am talking when it comes to CS3 and CS4 Photoshop problems on Intel machines running 10.5x and 10.6x.
I think the benefit of these forums is to get a wide variety of opinions from people who actually use the software on a daily basis, and from those people who actually know how to make the Mac OS work and those who know how to troubleshoot it effectively.
My point is Photoshop runs like crap for some people on OSX 10.5x and 10.6x, so don't waste too much time trying to figure it out once you ruled out the hardware and install....

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